Ukraine

Ukraine’s Suffering Shows Culture Warriors What a Real War Looks Like: a Quillette Editorial

Over the last month, Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine, slaughtered thousands of its citizens, and laid waste to its infrastructure. At home, the Russian President has outlawed political dissent, arrested legions of antiwar protesters, shut down the last vestiges of an independent press, and, as Quillette contributor Robert Ginzburg has

The Quillette Editorial Board 23 Mar 2022 · 4 min read

Monkey with a Grenade

“Not even a pig shits where it eats.” So said Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev when attacking Nobel Laureate Boris Pasternak for publishing his masterpiece Dr. Zhivago abroad while still living in Russia. Mao railed against the “running dogs” of capitalism. Stalinist propaganda posters vilified priests as sly geese, while Stalinist

Robert Ginzburg 20 Mar 2022 · 5 min read

A Failure of Deterrence

According to foreign policy “realists,” the tale we are being told about Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war in Ukraine is a fiction. Realists like to be known for their clear-eyed appreciation of the realities of global power, and in their telling, responsibility for the war does not lie chiefly

Brian Stewart 17 Mar 2022 · 6 min read

Privilege-Checking in a World on Fire

Privilege is a sham mark of opprobrium—those who decry the privilege of others tend to want more of it for themselves. The dissemblance is all the more distasteful given that the detractors of privilege typically possess, comparatively speaking, an abundance of it. One need not be conversant in history

David A. Eisenberg 15 Mar 2022 · 5 min read

Ukraine: On the Fault Line Between East and West

Ukrainian nationalism and its clear expression as part of a larger European identity has burst into the open with the power of a hydrogen bomb.

Michael J. Totten 14 Mar 2022 · 11 min read

Ukraine and the Pro-Putin Right

Reactions to Russia’s war in Ukraine have become a perfect demonstration of the “horseshoe theory,” according to which the extremes of Left and Right must converge. Amid overwhelming international condemnation of Russia and sympathy for the Ukrainians’ courageous resistance, Putin-friendly voices blaming the West, NATO, and particularly the

Cathy Young 12 Mar 2022 · 12 min read

Remind the Kremlin of Its Weakness

From the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, discussions about the war in the West have been permeated by a dangerous tone of complacency and self-congratulation. The Russian military has indeed been exposed as less than effective, and Ukrainian bravery has resonated among the public

Dalibor Roháč 11 Mar 2022 · 7 min read

The Pathologies of Imperialism

An earlier version of this article appeared in the German language newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on March 4th, 2022. February 24th, 2022, constituted a shock to the European psyche. The invasion of Ukraine, without any plausible casus belli, the massive use of military force against civilians, the attempted hunting down

Harold James 11 Mar 2022 · 11 min read

The New Great Game

Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine will be remembered as one of the great crimes of the 21st century. The ensuing humanitarian crisis has already caused more than two million refugees to flee their homeland. With the imposition of sanctions, policymakers will have to weigh their political options as a

Joel Kotkin and Hügo Krüger 9 Mar 2022 · 10 min read

Vladimir Putin’s Medieval Mindset

In 1338, the story has it, a notorious French exile named Robert of Artois strutted into the London palace of King Edward III, bearing a stuffed heron on a silver platter. “Clear the way, you miserable failures,” he said to the assembled lords. “I have a heron … the most cowardly

Jonathan Kay 3 Mar 2022 · 5 min read

An Englishman in Russia Bids His Daughter Farewell

I am an Englishman in Southern Russia. For nearly four years I’ve lived here, helping my Russian ex-partner bring up our (now) eight-year-old daughter. At 9 o’clock last night I saw both of them onto a sleeper-train to Moscow. From there they will fly

Robert Ginzburg 28 Feb 2022 · 6 min read

Why Ukraine Matters

If Putin succeeds in his aggression in Ukraine and the Republican Party follows Trump in his admiration for what he has done, then it will be making a decisive break with fundamental American democratic values.

Francis Fukuyama 26 Feb 2022 · 5 min read

The New Eurasian Century

The current crises in eastern Europe reflect more than just Kremlin mischief-making—they reflect the first fruits of an emerging world order that spans the vastness from Beijing to Berlin. Unlike the longstanding liberal status quo, with its roots in classical civilization and the Enlightenment, this emerging alternative draws

Joel Kotkin 15 Feb 2022 · 9 min read

Ukraine in the Balance

As I write this, Vladimir Putin has moved more than 100,000 troops to Russia’s Ukrainian border, and has strongly implied that he will invade absent an ironclad guarantee that Ukraine will never be permitted to join NATO. Although the Biden administration has rejected that demand, a chorus of

Brian Stewart 14 Feb 2022 · 10 min read

What Putin Really Wants

On Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desk sits a bronze statue of Peter the Great, the tsar who spent his four decades in power waging war on neighbors to establish his country as a great power in Europe. Peter would have understood the nature of the current conflict in Eastern

Christopher Miller 14 Feb 2022 · 8 min read

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